Publisher and editor of West Kentucky Journal bring decades of experience to writing

Mary Potter & Ivan Potter, West Kentucky Journal

August 5, 2014

Mary and Ivan Potter

UPDATED

(Clinton, KY- November 1, 2016) -West Kentucky Journal is not a blog. Except when Ivan Potter decides to write about woolly worms, music memories and favorite foods. The focus of the site remains news for and about far Western Kentucky- the section that borders the Mighty Mississippi River.

West Kentucky Journal publisher Ivan Potter is a futurist with a love of history. He is a graduate of Murray State University with a degree in geography. He holds a master's degree in planning from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

Ivan worked in three Kentucky governors' offices and did a stint in two White Houses, one Democratic and one Republican, before leaving government for the private sector. He served on the Clinton City Council for three terms and retired as of January 1, 2017.

WKJ Editor Mary Potter is a practicing attorney in Clinton, Kentucky. She's been a lawyer for 30 years, graduating from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law during the previous century. She holds precious her elementary education bachelor's degree and a master's degree in early childhood education. They have proven invaluable both in her day job and in her evening job as editor of the West Kentucky Journal.

Mary writes, takes many of the photographs, does the graphics and cartoons, and sends out the newsletters. Her most important and enjoyable job is editing her husband's always interesting quirky musings for grammar and spelling.

"Tenses make him tense," she says. "So he doesn't use them. It's like a time traveler's writing. One never knows whether one is in the past, present or future with Ivan's work. But it's never boring."

In addition to 6000 stories on West Kentucky Journal and its predecessor publication, West Kentucky Journal of Politics and Issues, the Potters have published eight photography calendars and are working on the 2017 edition.

Mary wrote and published a children's book "No Count Dog" in late 2013.

Ivan joined her in the children's book business as illustrator of "No Count Dog to the Rescue" in 2015. In his spare time, Ivan is working on a book of his essays. Publication date is whenever he can come to a good stopping point and stop writing new anecdotes.

The Potters are total newsjunkies. Ivan subscribes to multiple newspapers. He loves the feel of newsprint and ink on his fingers. Mary gets her news in more modern ways - online, radio and television and of course, social media.

Meeting and spending more than half their lives together in Frankfort, the two have an interest in government on all levels from federal to local. They don't consider themselves mainstream media - (they don't consider themselves mainstream anything). The Potters believe there is as much a place for the citizen journalist as in earlier days of publishing when a degree in journalism was the exception, rather than the norm.

Mary and Ivan have two children, a son and a daughter, by previous marriages. They have three grandchildren who are growing up too fast to list their ages.

Even though they work together and write together and have even wallpapered together, they are still enjoying thirty plus years of wedded bliss.

Ivan Potter can be reached at ivan@westkyjournal.com or by phone at 270-207-8744.

Mary can be reached by email at editor@westkyjournal.com. Her law office number is 270-653-3312. She is on Facebook, Twitter @marybpotter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.